An American Fraud: One Lawyer’s Case against Mormonism

“Each of us has to face the matter—either the Church is true, or it is a fraud. There is no middle ground. It is the Church and kingdom of God or it is nothing.”
—LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley, April Conference, 2003.

Many Mormons assume that this and other similar proclamations by LDS leaders are rhetorical statements. But what if the Mormon leaders meant something else?

Historically, Mormonism has made vast and significant changes to its theology. Likewise, Mitt Romney, a life-long Mormon who has served as an LDS leader, tweaks, equivocates and refuses to acknowledge inconvenient, facts. Romney has the most documented campaign flip-flops of any politician in recent history, yet he seems unaware that his pattern of public contradiction is problematic. After reading An American Fraud, the reader will understand the nexus between growing up Mormon and Romney’s innate inauthenticity.

It is estimated that more than 1-1.5 million Mormons have resigned from the Church since 1995. Some claim there are more ex-Mormons than Mormons. An American Fraud explains why there is such a recent, formal abandonment of Mormonism by, in many cases, previously devout members.

The Book of Mormon is not a translation of ancient American history engraved in “reformed Egyptian,” on golden plates buried by an early American prophet. Instead, this key Mormon scripture has been shown to be a 19th-century work of fiction authored by Joseph Smith and perhaps others. Historically, most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rarely read outside their scriptures and Church-approved literature. However, Mormons have recently begun to discover facts about LDS history that had previously been known to very few, mainly scholarly historians of Mormonism. Through the discovery of these primary historical sources, now available on numerous internet sites, intelligent and curious Mormons have reached a critical point. If they read, they have become disaffected and disoriented. Many are experiencing crises of faith.

The first third of An American Fraud. One Lawyer’s Case against Mormonism, chronicles the Author’s journey out of the Religion. The second part of the book is an exposé, including an analysis under the law. The Author, an experienced civil trial attorney, places the activities of Mormon leaders over almost two centuries in their proper legal framework, analyzing not only the misrepresentations, but the resulting damages: political, environmental and especially psycho-social.

The fraud committed by generations of Mormon leaders is that they have consistently misrepresented the facts surrounding the source of their scriptures. Neither the golden plates, nor writings by the Old Testament prophet Abraham, claimed to have been inscribed on purchased Egyptian papyri, ever existed. Furthermore, the claimed visitations by biblical apostles to restore lost priesthoods to Smith and his colleagues never occurred. Yet for decades LDS leaders have at least ignored, if not suppressed and grossly misrepresented, what has been proven to be the true facts surrounding Mormonism’s origins, reworking and re-packaging the founding facts and the theology as necessary.

Billions of U.S. dollars and other currency, donated by worldwide faithful members, have been used to expand the global commercial holdings of this corporate conglomerate. Meanwhile, deserving beneficiaries of the donations, the poor and distressed, admittedly receive just a small percentage of the Church’s gross income. Those who joined or continued on in the Religion reasonably relied on LDS leaders’ misrepresentations about its origins to their significant detriment. Given what has been proven about its sources, the Mormon Religion cannot continue to be defended under any pretext as a religious organization for the good of its members.